Firehiwot Dado: No Longer an Unknown

Apr 11, 2012

By Sabrina Yohannes

Firehiwot Dado wins the 2011 New York City Marathon.

If there’s one thing Firehiwot Dado did more than anything else in the late afternoon of Nov. 7, 2011, it’s giggle. Not because she’d won the New York City Marathon the day before, but simply because Dado has a bubbly personality and is quick to smile or laugh, which she did while relaying anecdotes from her stay in New York and from her first marathon victory in Rome, where she had also come in an unknown and left a victor. Given her marathon wins and victory at last month’s NYC Half Marathon, that’s a luxury she won’t enjoy in Monday’s Boston Marathon.Dado had shared a hotel room in New York in November with American Erin Ward. “We became such buddies,” says Dado, who had come from a time zone seven hours ahead and would often be up and back from training when Ward arose. “But we always went for breakfast together,” says Dado. One afternoon Ward set out in training gear for a run—or so Dado assumed. “Training—good?,” Dado, who was resting on her bed when the American returned, asked in her limited English. “Shopping,” Ward replied, raising her arms to show hands laden with bags. Dado reenacted the scene amidst peals of laughter.“When I won, she was so happy for me, she cried,” says Dado, who was touched by her roommate’s emotion. When she departed from New York, Ward left Dado a Post-It note stuck to Dado’s bedside Bible. “You’re a star,” it read.New York certainly made a breakout star out of Dado, who had come in with a 2:24:13 personal best and wins in Rome but no major marathons to her credit. She had been overlooked in a field that included 2:19:19 London champion Mary Keitany and 2:22:36 Boston winner Caroline Kilel, while 2:23:31 San Diego champion and New Yorker Buzunesh Deba had received added attention as a local favorite. Deba and Keitany made the podium that day, but behind Dado’s 2:23:15 win.“It’s a big race so all I knew was that I would put up a big fight, while victory is something no one expected of me and I never imagined myself,” says Dado. “At the start, the Kenyan took off. I knew she was strong, winning London, running 2:19. We let her go. But even so, we were running at a very high pace. When we reached 30K, Buzu [Deba] and I remained. After that, I was feeling so free inside. I knew I was going to do well. I knew I would make the podium. When I saw [Keitany], I was shocked. I said to Buzu, ‘There she is! Let’s pick up the pace!’” Dado passed Keitany first, Deba finished four seconds behind Dado, and the Kenyan ran 2:24:38.“Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!”
The outcome was not unlike Dado’s first win in Rome in March 2009, where she was a totally unexpected winner after placing second in 2:37:34 in Slovakia in 2008. It was only after that encouraging podium finish that she trained seriously for the distance, and she came to Rome well-prepared, challenging women with much faster PRs, including Italian Olympian Anna Incerti, who had run 2:27:42.Dado had a clear lead when the race director began to motion to her from a cycle and seemed to be telling her to remove her shoes. The event planned to commemorate Ethiopian Abebe Bikila’s barefoot 1960 Rome Olympic marathon victory by having any Ethiopian winners cross the finish line shoeless, but Dado hadn’t been informed. “I’m wondering, why is he telling me to remove my shoes?” says Dado, who, with no shoe sponsor at the time, was wearing mismatched gear. “The race had [Asics] as a sponsor,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is it because I’m wearing Adidas shoes?’”“He’s on the cycle, going ‘Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!’” she continues, collapsing in gales of laughter describing the miscommunication. “I’m pushing for the finish, and he’s going, ‘Please! Please!’”Baffled by the exchange, Dado finished the race with her shoes on, running 2:27:08 and lopping 10 minutes off her PR. Then she learned about the Bikila tribute. “No one told me,” Dado said to the race director. “You came in here with a 2:37,” she said he responded. “How was I to know you would win?”Repeat Victories
In 2010, Dado repeated the Rome victory, but again finished the race shod. “We were neck-and-neck ’til the finish line,” she says, having run 2:25:28 to the runner-up’s 2:25:31. “Let alone for the removal of shoes, there was no time for anything. But [the Ethiopian men’s champion] Siraj Gena had no competitors near him, and he did it. The third time, I took them off.”Dado won her third straight Rome in 2:24:13 in March 2011, having run the second half in 1:10:49, and she now hopes to become a repeat victor on the Marathon Majors circuit when she tackles Boston on Monday.“My thoughts are all towards Boston,” she said at the NYC Half Marathon last month, where she shadowed 1:07:11 Philadelphia champion Kim Smith of New Zealand before winning in 1:08:35. “She was going very fast and the pace suited me,” said Dado, whose bouncing stride looked comfortable throughout.Dado also felt at home on New York’s undulating course and she welcomes Boston’s. “It’s good that there are uphills and downhills,” she says “Where we train at home is also challenging.”What will be different from her fall marathon is others’ expectations of her. “I also expect a lot,” says Dado. “I really want to win and that’s what I’m dreaming of. I wasn’t favored then but based on the events since then, I know there will be more focus on me going forward and I am prepared for that, with God’s help.”

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